Mountain Counties Feel The Financial Pinch

FRISCO, Colo. (CBS4) – Several counties in the high country are expecting major shortfalls over the next decade. To prepare, they’re making dramatic budget cuts.

It’s very hard for the counties to make cuts because they already have very small staffs. The most recent round of layoffs shut down the Division of Motor Vehicles building in Frisco and the office will not be refilled. It saved the county about $750,000. The three employees will move to an office in Breckenridge but a fourth will be out of work by April.

Summit County spent millions building a new garage to store its fleet of vehicles. It’s an impressive facility in size in quality. But starting next month the vehicles rolling in with Summit County logos won’t be worked on by Summit County employees.

“What we determined was that with an outside contractor providing the services; it’s just a more effective way for us to operate our fleet services,” said Scott Vargo, Assistant County Manager.

The private company will take over in March. Three managers were laid off last Monday. It’s up to the new company to decide if they want to keep the 11 other mechanics.

I call B.S. This is just a copout. There are four major ski resorts in Summit County, all of which are seeing huge crowds every week, many of those people are staying in hotels, eating at restaurants, buying other stuff and the county STILL complains about no money????

These government agencies use every excuse possible to lay people off, cut back on budget and act like they’re poor, when only the opposite is true.